Television journalists stand across from the home of the family of journalist Steven Sotloff in Pinecrest, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

(Newser)
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The family of American journalist Steven Sotloff is aware that ISIS has released a video it claims shows his beheading and is "grieving privately," a spokesman says. The State Department says it is "sickened" and is trying to determine whether the video is genuine, reports the AP. Associates say the 31-year-old was well aware of the dangers in Syria but was determined to try to tell the world about the conflict's effect on ordinary people, Reuters notes. "I've been here over a week and no one wants freelance because of the kidnappings. It's pretty bad here," he emailed a colleague from northern Syria in late 2012. He was kidnapped soon after he returned to the country in August last year.

"He struck me as a very, very decent guy ... he wasn't chasing headlines, he wasn't hyping a pitch," says the editor of World Affairs, one of the publications that hired him for freelance work. Sotloff "is very brave and very imaginative and very sweet," Hudson Institute fellow Lee Smith tells the Wall Street Journal. Visiting Hudson Institute fellow Ann Marlowe, who worked with Sotloff in Libya in 2011, adds that every Muslim who knew Sotloff "is probably mortified and horrified that someone who really was a friend of the Muslim and Arab people has met his end this way." Sotloff "believed in the Arab Spring. He believed in democracy," she says. "He believed that Arabs and Muslims deserved the same opportunities we have in the West."

I don't get how stupid his mother was by going on TV. ISIS WANTS people to be scared and they would just as soon kill the mother also. They probably did it now knowing it would cause more of an uproar and sorrow for her since she went on TV begging for his life. Why the hell would she think these POS's have feelings? I'm sure they laughed the whole time knowing how it will affect the mother.

bikpet

Sep 3, 2014 9:05 AM CDT

This is a case of “the dog that didn’t bark.” If ISIS had actually beheaded a genuine, live journalist with Israeli citizenship, Israel would have bombed Syria in response. Just last week, when ISIS was attacking a border crossing in the Golan heights, a stray shell, most likely fired by ISIS given they were attacking towards Israel, lightly wounded a member of the IDF. Israel immediately responded by bombing Syrian Army positions. The “Mad Dog of the Middle East” always responds with disproportionate force to even the slightest provocation.

Imhotep

Sep 3, 2014 8:02 AM CDT

It's a horrible thing that their doing to these free lance non Muslim , non Arabic speaking American Journalists that appear to have Jewish ancestry and write stories about how terrible ISIS is.